In the art of figure skating on ice, a potential injury problem exists due to repetitive landings on the ice, which landings operate to stress the skater's ankles, knees, etc. One way to relieve the high deceleration forces that accompany many ice skating maneuvers is to place a spring between the skate boot and the ice engaging blade. This spring should bent or yield in the vertical direction only, and should be quite stiff and unyielding in the horizontal or lateral direction, thus providing the skater with good edge control. In addition, this vertical spring function should be provided in a manner so as not to weaken the mechanical strength of the skate blade assembly.
The present invention relates to a single blade ice skate that provides a vertical spring means, while maintaining a high degree of horizontal or lateral stability. In order to provide maximum strength for the blade/boot plate structure of the invention, with no localized areas of mechanical stress, the blade/boot plate structure of the invention is formed as a unitary assembly from a single piece of metal.
The concept of providing vertical spring means in a skate is generally known in the art. For example U.S. Pat. No. 2,414,967 teaches an ice skate wherein spring steel sole and heel plates are riveted to a blade. U.S. Pat. Nos. 22,895, 27,137, 236,556, 838,623, 1,245,737 and 1,263,091 are generally similar in their teachings.
In addition, it is known that coil springs have been used in the art to provide skates having a vertically operating spring means. U.S. Pat. Nos. 36,595, 37,428, 48,950, 388,693, 689,851, 1,111,246, 1,143,868 and 1,263,093 are examples.
While arrangements as exemplified above provided a form of vertical spring means, these arrangements all comprise a multiplicity of individual parts which must be fastened together to form an operating device. This construction inherently provides areas of metal stress and weakness, such as at the locations of fastening means such as welds or rivets. In addition, these arrangements do not provide a high degree of lateral stability for the skater.
Thus there remains a need in the art to provide an adequate vertical spring function to the skate, while at the same time maintaining a high degree of mechanical strength, with little or no sacrifice in the lateral stability that is provided to the skater.